Nine Columbia County students are among 22 people nominated for appointments to service academies by U.S. Rep. Paul Broun.

In announcing the appointments Wednesday, Broun said, “These students will become our nation’s future leaders, exemplifying the best attributes of scholarship, patriotism and civic service.”

While Broun and other members of Congress nominate students for appointment to service academies, admissions authorities at the individual academies make the final decision on accepting them, Broun added.

An opportunity to lease and redevelop the former Little River Marina site at Clarks Hill Lake attracted 18 interested parties Tuesday during a “pre-proposal site visit” organized by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“Interest has definitely been higher than expected,” corps spokesman Billy Birdwell said. “We do expect to have a new leaseholder who can move this place ahead.”

Columbia County’s attorney Tuesday confirmed that he had been paid to work as the closing attorney on a Martinez land deal on which an “affordable housing” development is under construction, but denied there was any conflict of interest.

In a brief interview following Tuesday’s Columbia County Commission meeting, County Attorney Doug Batchelor said he worked as the closing attorney for Affordable Equity Partners, the purchasers of the Magnolia Trace property, during the closing of their purchase of the Martinez land this past fall.

Columbia County authorities arrested early Thursday an Augusta man they say accepted money to remodel a Grovetown woman’s kitchen, but never finished the work.

Herbert Stanley Whitehead III, 23, of Peavine Court in Augusta, was charged with felony theft by conversion. He was released from the Columbia County Detention Center early Thursday after posting a $2,600 bond, according to jail records.

Emergency workers carry a stretcher up an embankment on Evans-to-Locks Road near Stevens Creek Road in Martinez after the driver of a vehicle clipped another vehicle while trying to pass Tuesday morning. Two people in the car were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.